


The Haircut

by queenglimmahs



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/M, Glimbow, Glimbow Week 2020, Glimbow week, Glimmer using "little kid logic", Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:16:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26316304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenglimmahs/pseuds/queenglimmahs
Summary: After a mishap in the Bright Moon kitchen, a young Glimmer convinces Bow that a haircut will fix everything. Or, the story of how Glimmer's iconic haircut came to be. Oneshot for the Childhood/Memories prompt for Glimbow Week 2020.
Relationships: Bow & Glimmer (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 37
Collections: Glimbow Week 2020





	The Haircut

**Author's Note:**

> So I had one SINGLE thought at 2 am the other night about that scene in "In the Shadows of Mystacor" where Glimmer and Aunt Casta briefly talk about the former's hair and... this weird little oneshot came to be.  
> This is for the childhood/memories prompt for Glimbow Week 2020.

"Bow, come on! You said you'd help me!"

The young princess of Bright Moon was perched on the edge of her suspended bed, her legs wildly swinging back and forth with impatience. She peered down at her best friend, who was currently standing at the base of the floating staircase, a worried look on his face as he nervously gripped a pair of scissors in one hand.

"I know, I just... are you sure this is the best idea?" he asked, his voice slightly squeaky.

"Bow! We don't have time for this!" Glimmer whined. "Come on, just get up here already! My mom's gonna find out we took her scissors from her desk any minute now!"

"It's just..." Bow glanced down at the aforementioned pair of scissors he was holding. "What if I cut it too short?"

"It's just hair! It'll grow back," Glimmer protested. "Besides, I trust you. Now get on up here and help me, will you?"

Bow let out a resigned sigh before making his way up the floating steps to Glimmer's bed. He climbed onto the soft bedding and positioned himself so that he was kneeling behind her, slightly hovering over the back of her head. Bracing himself, he lifted the pair of scissors in the air and gave the section of her hair that was smeared with thick cake frosting an apprehensive look. The off-white glob contrasted sharply against her bubblegum pink hair, and the longer he nervously eyed the mess before him, the more intimidated he felt.

His heart beginning to race, he lowered the scissors slightly.

"Glimmer..." he started, trying to give them both one last chance to get out of the situationthey had found themselves in. "Are you _sure_ we can't just find a way to wash it out of your hair?"

"Bow, my mom will notice if I'm all wet at dinner tonight!"

"... won't she also notice a haircut?"

"Not if we layer it afterward!"

Bow frowned slightly for a moment before considering this. Maybe it _would_ be possible to layer Glimmer's hair in a way that would hide the cut. After all, even though she had only just turned eight, the young princess of Bright Moon already had beautiful long locks that almost rivaled her mother's. Surely that was enough hair to work with...

" _Bow._ "

The sound of Glimmer's voice quickly brought him back to reality- she was starting to sound rather upset.

"If you don't cut my hair soon, then my mom will go looking for her scissors, and then she'll find us in here, and then she'll start asking questions, and then she'll find out that we sneaked into the kitchen to try some of my birthday cake early, and then..." She was speaking rapidly now, her words almost blending together from being said in such quick succession. Bow realized with alarm that she had started to cry.

Glimmer let out a shaky hiccup before finishing her thought.

"... and then she'll never have the staff make me a birthday cake _ever again_!" She was practically wailing by now, and the sound of it caused Bow to feel a pang in his heart.

He _hated_ to see her upset.

"Okay, okay!" he said quickly, desperate to comfort her somehow. "I- I'll cut it right now. It'll be fine, Glimmer. Everything will be fine. I promise."

Glimmer sniffed.

"Thank you."

Knowing that there was truly no getting out of this now, Bow took a deep breath. He raised his fist, which was still curled around the pair of scissors, back into the air. Without thinking, he closed his eyes before squeezing the handles. A moment later, he heard the soft, distinct crunch of hair being cut. Eyes still closed, he awkwardly made a few more cuts before stopping, and then there was silence.

An eternity seemed to pass before he heard Glimmer addressing him.

"Bow? How does it look?"

She sounded impatient. Wanting to give her an answer, Bow opened his eyes, only for his heart to drop straight into his stomach at the sight before him. He had actually managed to cut off all of the hair that had been covered in frosting, but in its place now was a gaping hole, framed by brutally chopped strands of hair. He let out a squeaky gasp before dropping the scissors onto the bed out of shock.

"Oh... oh no," he said quietly under his breath in horror.

No amount of layering was going to fix this.

"Bow? Is everything okay? Did you cut it too short?"

"I... um," the young boy squeaked. 

What was he supposed to tell her?

"Bow! _Just tell me!_ "

"Bad," he finally managed to choke out. "It's really bad. I- Glimmer, I am so, so sorry-"

"It's bad? How bad?" she demanded. Bow tried to squeak out a response, only for no words to come out.

Clearly frustrated, Glimmer disappeared in a flurry of purple-pink sparkles, only to appear again moments later clutching two hand mirrors.

"Here, help me angle these so I can see."

Too scared to refuse her at this point, he complied, taking the one mirror while Glimmer held onto the other. It took the pair of best friends a minute to figure out how to position the two mirrors so that Glimmer could see the back of her head. Once her eyes finally landed on the disastrous sight, Glimmer shrieked and dropped the mirror she was holding, which quickly plummeted to its premature death. Bow let out a terrified gasp as the mirror smashed against the floor, little shards of glass scattering everywhere.

"Bow!" the princess screeched. "What did you do?"

"I'm so sorry! I- I closed my eyes-"

"You _closed_ your eyes?"

"Yes?"

" _Why?_ "

"I- I don't know, I just panicked! I'm really, really sorry!" Bow felt ready to cry too now. He set down the mirror he had been holding and buried his face in his hands. A minute later, he felt Glimmer wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

"Bow...Bow, it's okay," he heard her say in a hushed tone. "Really. We'll find a way to fix it. I'm sorry I freaked out."

He let out a sniffle before pulling away to look at her. Her eyes were huge and apologetic- clearly, she meant what she had said.

"How... how are we gonna fix it though?" he asked, his voice shaky.

"We'll just cut it some more. It'll even out eventually," Glimmer said. It was unclear whether she was trying to convince Bow or herself.

"But... but there's still glass all over the floor, and we're gonna get in so much trouble..."

"Bow! Stop freaking me out!" she snapped. A second later she realized how her words had sounded, and she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.

"Sorry. Okay, let's... let's give it another try. I still trust you, okay? Just keep your eyes open this time," she added.

Bow gulped before nodding. Trying to keep his hand from shaking too hard, he picked the pair of scissors back up. He took a deep breath before he began to cut her hair again, eyes open this time. With each new cut of the scissors, the pile of pink hair on top of the bed continued to grow.

Once he had reached the nape of her neck, Bow stopped what he was doing. Glimmer was sporting a sort of messy chopped bob hairstyle now, and while it may not have worked on anybody else, Bow thought that it worked on her. Besides, with the way that her hair was cut now, Bow could see her sparkly purple undertones clearly for the first time. He let out a low gasp at his initial sight of it, a bit starstruck by how pretty it was.

"Bow?"

Glimmer had heard him gasp apparently, and now she sounded a bit worried again.

"Are you finished? How does it look now?"

"Yeah, I'm done." He glanced over his handiwork again. "It's not bad anymore. It's just... really short now. But it looks good. Really."

Glimmer seemed to contemplate this for a moment before picking up the surviving hand mirror that Bow had set down on the bed earlier. She held it up to her face and examined her reflection for a few moments, familiarizing herself with her new look, before setting the mirror back down and turning to face her friend, a huge grin on her face.

"Bow!" She quickly wrapped her arms around him, attacking him with a surprise hug.

"You did it! You fixed it!" she gushed into his ear, squeezing the life out of him. "I knew you could do it! Oh, Bow, thank you, thank you!"

Bow was starting to feel... really warm, for some reason.

"No problem," he squeaked back to her. At the slightly strained sound of his voice, Glimmer suddenly realized that she may have been hugging him just a _little_ too hard and let go of him. Bow took a deep breath, his cheeks flushed.

"I love it. Really," Glimmer insisted. Bow's cheeks just turned brighter in response. "I actually like it better this way."

"You do?"

"Yeah." Glimmer smiled at him, and for a moment, Bow was unable to focus on anything else besides the way she was looking at him. 

"Hey, Bow? Can I have the scissors now? I _really_ need to put them back in my mom's desk before she realizes they're missing."

Oh, stars. Queen Angella. What were they going to say to her? Glimmer's new look was _anything_ but subtle. Bow gulped before handing over the pair of scissors.

"What are we gonna tell your mom when she sees your hair?"

Glimmer pursed her lips, deep in thought for a moment, before brightening up once more.

"I'll just tell her it was a birthday haircut!"

"A birthday haircut?" He gave her a confused look. "Is that even a thing?"

"Sure it is!"

Well, she certainly sounded confident. Bow decided to put his faith in her, just as he had done countless times before.

"Okay then. Sounds like a plan."

***

Queen Angella of Bright Moon was certainly no stranger to her daughter's antics. After all, she had been Glimmer's mother for eight years now, not to mention her sole parent for the majority of that time. Glimmer was just bound to get into mishaps sometimes, even with Bow around to act as her impulse control. Angella had tried her best to make her peace with this a while ago.

Still, she could already feel a headache coming on. She lightly pressed her hands to her temple as she sat alone in the royal dining room, waiting for Glimmer and Bow to arrive so that the former's birthday dinner could finally begin.

It had been far too easy for the queen to piece together what had happened earlier that day. The pair of 8-year-olds had not exactly been subtle. They had left far too many clues behind in their wake: the distinct long strands of bubblegum pink hair stuck to the side of Glimmer's birthday cake; the pair of scissors that had suddenly vanished from the queen's desk; the suspicious- and, quite frankly, alarming- amount of glass shards that Angella had happened to catch one of the castle maids disposing of earlier.

Honestly, what had Glimmer been thinking? Could she _really_ not have waited just a few more hours to try a piece of her birthday cake? Why had she resorted to cutting her hair, rather than just washing the frosting out? These were the questions running through Angella's mind when she suddenly heard some familiar footsteps from outside the dining room. The queen of Bright Moon removed her hands from her temple and looked up just in time to see Glimmer hurrying into the room, Bow trailing closely behind her.

Angella was about to ask the two of them why they had taken so long to arrive when her eyes landed on her daughter's messy chopped bob. Her jaw dropped open in shock for a brief moment- a rare sight, considering how composed and elegant the immortal queen usually was- before she closed her mouth again. Even though she had already pieced together the afternoon's events and their aftermath, she had not expected Glimmer's impromptu haircut to be so _extreme_. She found herself glancing towards Bow, at a loss for words, only to find that the young boy looked ready to pass out at any moment- the sight of her jaw dropping had clearly terrified him. Glimmer, meanwhile, was blissfully oblivious, no doubt because she was excited to see that the kitchen staff had prepared her favorite meal for tonight.

The queen of Bright Moon opened her mouth again, ready to say something, when Glimmer's eyes suddenly met her own.

With her hair cut like that and those huge sparkles in her eyes, Glimmer looked so much like Micah.

Angella closed her mouth once more before her expression softened.

Perhaps an impromptu haircut was not a bad thing.


End file.
